Work Text:
"I need to do something," muttered Adrien as he paced around the washroom. "I can't ignore it."
Plagg popped out of his shirt's pocket. "You could choose better places for your jealou—"
Adrien glared at him. "I'm not jealous!"
Plagg gave him a snarky look. "Riiight," he snarled.
"I just," muttered Adrien, starting to walk around again, "worry for my friend." Plagg stared blankly.
"She's in love with Chat Noir!" Plagg kept staring.
"I must warn her that Gad isn't Chat Noir." He scratched his nape. "I must protect her, even if it means revealing myself. She can keep a secr—"
Plagg put his paws up. "Okay, calm down! Why would you want to reveal yourself to Pigtails?"
Adrien looked at him as if he had grown two heads. "Because she thinks that Gad is Chat Noir?"
Plagg huffed. "And that bothers you becauuuuse?"
"Uh, nothing. Just... she's my friend." Adrien blushed. "I don't want her heart broken again."
Plagg smirked. "To be honest, I don't see anything wrong in Pigtails getting closer to this new kid. All he's done is have the same hairstyle as Chat Noir and say cat puns. So what, if your friend likes him?"
Adrien's hand flew to his nape, his previous blush growing darker. "Uuuuh… b-but she will be devastated when she finds out!"
"Why should she?" Plagg raised an amused eyebrow. "Unless, you tell her." The kwami smirked at Adrien's silence.
Adrien slouched his shoulders. "I don't want her to get with him, Plagg."
Plagg's smirk widened. "And you don't want to, becauuuuuuse...?"
Adrien growled again. "Shut up!" He marched out of the restroom, forcing the kwami to hide inside his shirt pocket, but when Adrien reached the locker room. Plagg noticed that nobody was around, so he came out.
The kwami looked at him sardonically, which only caused Adrien to sit down on one of the benches and hide his face. Plagg, however, still managed to get in front of his nose, and stared at him in silence.
"Okay, okay, I admit it I—" started Adrien, but before he could finish, the door of the locker room opened and he ducked behind a locker.
Marinette stormed in, immediately followed by Alya. Adrien squeezed against the wall and held his breath.
"Marinette? Why are you so terrified that Gad may be Chat Noir?"
Marinette turned towards her best friend, flailing her arms. "It's a disaster, Alya! I could hide my identity up to now because I've never interacted much with him out of the mask. But if I start spending all day with him in school, he may find out that I'm Ladybug!"
Adrien's world crashed.
He put a hand to his mouth, muffling a gasp. His knees failed him and his head started spinning. He needed to sit down, but instead, he leaned more strongly against the wall, his eyes shut full of tears.
"I think you're paranoid," groaned Alya, and then continued by lowering her voice, "I've been sitting next to you for a whole year and had no clue. He won't notice." She looked around. "Besides, maybe we should've checked if anybody was here before spilling secrets of this stance?"
Marinette looked around. "I can't see anyone."
"Trixx heard a gasp. Maybe we should check—" she said, but the bell rang, signaling they had to return to class.
When the door closed, Adrien let out the breath and allowed his body to slip down the wall, sitting on the cold floor. He was shaking.
Marinette was Ladybug. But this wasn't what had hit him like a punch in the stomach, no. It was the fact that ALYA knew. Marinette told her. She'd told her before telling him.
Adrien felt deceived. He didn't even stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks. His Lady revealed her identity to a civilian—ah, no, Alya mentioned Trixx, the kwami of illusion. She was Rena Rouge.
Why would she tell Rena and not him? How many other people knew? A sob erupted from Adrien's clenched throat and he hid his face behind his knees.
"Gamin?" Plagg put a paw on Adrien's head, but Adrien couldn't find comfort in it .
"Leave me alone!" shouted Adrien, continuing to sob.
It took a very long time. When the bell rang again, finally, Adrien's head emerged from behind his knees and the boy stood up, staggering.
"You don't look good, gamin. Go wash your face," whispered the kwami.
Adrien looked in his direction, but he wasn't seeing him. "It hurts, Plagg." His voice was groggy. "Why does she never trust me? I… feel so empty."
He walked towards the door and Plagg flew to his nose. "Listen to me. You need to wash your face and get yourself together or people are going to wonder which member of your family just died."
"I don't give a damn," spat Adrien. "I'm fed up with pretending everything is okay."
oOoOoOoOoOo
"Bye bye little feather!" whispered Ladybug. Chat Noir decided to wear his carefree mask, with sad eyes.
"So… who's confusing fantasy with reality now?" His smirk reached his eyes when Ladybug—Marinette!—blushed and looked away. "I can't believe that you fell for that poor imitation of my pawsome sense of humour, Ladybug."
The superheroine groaned. "Stop teasing me, chaton. I can't believe I fell for Lila's acting skills!"
"Well, there's only one way to never have this purr-oblem again, M'lady. You should ask to see me in all my maskless glory." He winked and held her hand as his Miraculous gave a beep. After dropping a soft kiss on her knuckles, his gaze trained into hers, he whispered in her ear, "But until you won't accept to do that, I'll need to s-cat." Then he leaned even closer and in a lower whisper, he finished, "Marinette."
"WHA—" She gasped, her eyes wide, her face pale.
"See you around!" He smirked at the terror in her face, picked his baton from his lower back and propelled himself away.